


Reunion and Loss

by Lady_Katana4544



Series: NaNo 2012 Writings [7]
Category: Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe
Genre: Canon Relationship, Character Death, Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Mild Language, Strongly Implied Torture, Superfamily, Superhusbands, The Author Has Feels, Tissue Warning, Written for NaNo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-18
Updated: 2012-11-18
Packaged: 2017-11-18 22:56:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/566189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Katana4544/pseuds/Lady_Katana4544
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for this <a href="http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/10266.html?thread=22844442">prompt at avengerkink on lj</a>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Reunion and Loss

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this [prompt at avengerkink on lj](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/10266.html?thread=22844442).

Damn them.

Damn his own arc reactor for giving their enemies an easy target spot.

He's managed pushed himself up onto the broken stone slab and winced as his body protested the quick movement. As he arched his body and shuddered, he knew that his body was slowly dying around him while he could feel the shrapnel moving inside him relentlessly towards its target.

He remembers this pain well, the relentless and adamant burning agony like an old friend from when Stane had taken the first arc reactor and had left him to die in his own home though coupled now with the tortures his captors had brought down upon him, as he fights just to keep breathing. 

Keening as he fights the urge to curl in on himself to try and relieve the building pressure in his chest.

He panted and winced knowing that he didn't want to die in this place alone without his family around him, though he grudgingly accepted that destiny seemed to have other plans. He wants to keep control of his shuddering body, but its dying around him and his control dissolves into blinding pain.

If he shouts, he doesn't hear it happen.

If he cuts himself on something, he isn't aware of it happening.

If there's sweat dripping into his eyes and mixing with his tears as he clenches his eyes shut, its something he doesn't feel.

He's only mostly aware of the brutal pain that is building inside his chest and blinds of all of his senses and the world is gone briefly each time though it is replaced by white. After a while the world comes back into focus and the still wild beating of his heart catches his attention.

Telling him that the shrapnel hasn't finished with him quite just yet.

“Oh god, _Tony_.”

Something crunches under the thud of a boot before there's the familiar gentle touch of his husband on his upper arm and then world whites out again.

0000

No one was sure or even able to tell him how Hydra and AIM were able to work together long enough to launch a combined attack against his husband and kidnap him while he was at a meeting across town with another company's executive vying for company control over technology. There hadn't been any whispers in SHIELD that something was happening or even going to happen when he had tried to find intel about it.

He remembers that day as though it were only yesterday, speaking with Clint and Natasha on their opinions about possibly expanding their team when the call had come in. But by the time they had reached the area, it was too late and it was discovered that the enemy extraction team had gotten what they had come for.

His husband.

He realizes now that he should have insisted that Tony take one of his suits – the briefcase suit with him when he had gone to the meeting. He wants to start shouting, scream obscenities at SHIELD for alerting the Avengers sooner that Hydra and AIM were up to something, break something against wall, and yet he can't do any of that. He knows that he has keep up the calm and composed Captain America visage because his son is always watching and knows that his other father is missing.

He has to keep a strong front going for Peter to see, until they get Tony back. Even though they had no leads as to where his husband was being held.

Then their first and only lead is a video the villains have sent of them torturing Tony after four weeks of not being able to find anything through SHIELD's usual search methods. It worries him that their enemies seem to know so much that his husband's only true weakness is the arc reactor that keeps him alive.

He doesn't let their son watch the video with the team, when Fury has the Avengers come to the helicarrier. The video to say the least was graphic in what they did to his husband, and he was only vaguely surprised that the table had only splintered in his grip. He turns his hard gaze to meet Fury's gaze head on.

_Tony’s face contorting in obvious agony as a groan of pain tore itself from his throat. It was worse each time. As he thrashed weakly against his bonds, his bloodied body seeming to make an attempt at rejoining with the arc reactor being held above it's connectors._

“Has SHIELD been able to figure out how long they had been following Tony before they grabbed him?”

“We're not exactly sure. But we think anywhere from a couple weeks to a month or so. We haven't found any leads to where they might holding him.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off when someone cleared their throat behind the Director and he was aware of the other Avengers joining them as they turned to look at the stern faced Agent that had gotten their attention and he realized with strangled hope in his heart that the Agent was holding a Stark tech tablet.

“Actually Director, these coordinates just came in an hour ago.”

Slowly Fury takes the tablet from the Agent and reads over the contents of it before handing it to him. He looks at the coordinates with his team as Fury and the Agent discuss the coordinates quietly.

“Are they accurate? Have they been checked?”

“Yes sir. Triple checked them per Agent Hill's order. We believe that they are accurate for the location.”

“Good. Agent Hill.”

“Sir?”

“Put together a SHIELD team. We're going with the Avengers to retrieve Stark.”

“Yes sir.”

What happened between that and arriving at the location given to them by his husband's captors was likely going to forever a blur in his memory. But he knows that he'll remember that feeling of unease and the anticipation of rescuing Tony from the group holding him. 

When he comes back to himself mentally, he recognizes that they are at what had at one time been an abandoned warehouse close to the city that now held the obvious signs of being used recently. He looks around, noting that everyone with them, including a silent Agent Hill and a stoic Coulson are watching him obviously waiting for him to say something.

And so he does say something.

“I want someone to watch the perimeter. My team, myself and some SHEILD Agents will search the interior for Tony Stark and the enemy team.”

The muted “yes sir” follows him, he strides towards the doors of the building knowing that they are following him as he nearly knocks the doors inward and completely off their hinges with his shield. Striding into the building with the teams fanning out behind him to conduct their searches of the warehouse, he begins his search for his beloved husband.

After an hour or so of searching the second basement floor of the warehouse, despair just starting to grip his heart that it actually wasn't the right place when a sound from a nearby room catches his attention. Cautiously he edges towards the room and pushes the already partially open door to look inside.

What he finds, makes his heart both rise with hope and fill with dread. He had found his husband, but he was uncertain if he was too late or if he could save him still as he approached the spot where his husband lay on the slab. His horror was potent when he noticed that there was no light coming from his husband's chest.

Where was the arc reactor that kept his husband alive?

“Oh god, _Tony_.”

He kneels next to the slab and gently touches his pale husband's arm as he groans and shudders wincing. As quickly as the moment had come on, it seemed to pass just as quickly and Tony opens his eyes as he pants for a breath.

“Steve, I -”

“Shh, I'm here. We're going to out of here together and we will get another reactor into you.”

“Steve.”

“No, I can't you lose and neither can Peter. You are our world and my brightest star, I refuse to you lose like everyone else that was ever close to me.”

“Steve.”

“I'll make sure that there is an arc reactor ready and waiting for placement.”

“ _Steve_. Love, please listen. Its been too long since the reactor I did have installed was taken by my c-captors, I- I'm not gonna last long enough to wait for a new r-reactor.”

_“Hawkeye to Captain America. Cap, did you find anything yet? Or you know Tony?”_

The frank tone and resigned statement from his husband, left him shaking and helpless with anger. He knows that his husband is right and knows better than most, that a replacement reactor wouldn't be enough for the damage that was being done by the shrapnel inside Tony. Suddenly there's Tony in his arms, despite the man's pained protests and wince at the sudden movement of his shuddering body as he kneels with his back against the slab.

_“Black Widow to Captain America. What is your location?”_

“Tony please. Don't leave me like this. We need you.”

How Tony found enough strength to grasp and clench onto the course fabric of his uniform was beyond him. But it reminded him of why he had decided that he loved this man enough to ask him for his hand in marriage and then later adopt their son, Peter. There was something simply beautiful about the inner strength of the man when it was in action. He knows that he probably won't ever meet another person like him in this lifetime.

“I _know_ that, Steve. But I also know that you and Peter will find a way to get on without me, because you are gonna have to. Ah! Listen to me, I know you can do it. You are the Man with a plan after all, if anyone can do it you can. Have Pepper give you my will when you leave this place.”

_“Agent Hill to Captain America. Report your location now. Over.”_

“Promise me that you find the arc reactor the bastards took that you get the Hulk to destroy it, along with the rest of my spares. That's in the will too. And tell Peter for me that I love him.”

“I promise.”

“Thanks.”

He smiled slightly and chuckled a bit as thought of their happiest memories as Tony winced again and his grip on the suit faltered before tightening again and raised his head up a bit to look him at fully with gentle yet serious expression on his pale face.

“Kiss me.”

“What?”

“You heard me, Steve. Kiss me.. Ah.. I don't want my last memory to be what they did to me, but our last kiss.”  
“Alright.”

“What are yo -mmff!”

_“Banner to Captain Rogers. Please respond or we'll be coming in after you.”_

_“Seriously man, better respond. I think he's starting to look a little green.”_

He presses his lips gently to his husband's lips before deepening it as Tony responds to it, swallowing the sounds of his moans and aware that there were tears running down his face. Its only when his husband's lips are no longer moving with his that he realizes that Tony is gone for good.

He bows his head to Tony's limp shoulder and sobs begin racking his large frame. How long he stays in that room holding his husbands body is uncertain, but he comes back to himself just as he's leaving the warehouse carrying his husband's body and meets the uncertain eyes of his teammates as his knees are on the ground for the second time. And he hears Thor's voice in his ear as gentle hands lay themselves on his shoulders, mindful of their placement and of what he carries.

“Captain. We are here with you in your time of mourning.”

0000

He's sitting and talking with Gwen in homeroom as she gently holds on his hands, worry and general unease about the situation with his missing father and worry the way that his other father seems to be handling the situation building. He knows that they can handle themselves pretty well if they are in danger.

He's seen pieces of the video of his father's torture when he knew that no one was looking, he's angry that they took his father from him and he's angry at himself for not being able to protect his family even with knowing who his fathers are.

He failed to protect his family both as himself and as Spiderman. Something that he hadn't yet gathered the courage together to tell his fathers that he was Spiderman at night.

“Hey Pete?”

The voice of one of the other students in their homeroom, startles him out of his anger and he looks over to meet the other kid's – Michael he thinks is his name – calm gaze. He knows that Gwen is also watching them, along with the rest of the class. And some students peeking in through the door window too.

“Yeah?”

“Have you seen today's paper yet?”

“No.”

The other kid hesitates briefly to look down at what is obviously the paper on his desk and looks at him again, before obviously making the decision to hand it over to him.

“Well... here I think you should see this then.”

Hesitantly he takes the paper from him and starts to read it, opening his mouth to make a joke about one of the articles when he finally sees it and stops cold. There on the front page is a picture of his father in his Captain America uniform surrounded by the rest of the Avengers, Agent Coulson, and some other SHIELD agents. Holding the limp form of his other father in his arms and kneeling on the ground.

**_“As seen here, Captain America also known as Captain Rogers-Stark is holding the body of the now deceased Anthony Edward Stark-Rogers, CEO of Stark Enterprises. Mr. Stark had been captured four weeks prior by an unknown group and up until this moment, had been assumed to be alive._ **

**_The group known as SHIELD and the rest of the Avengers have refused to comment on the matter. Mr. Stark leaves behind his husband and one son...”_ **

“Oh Peter.”

The paper falls back down onto his desk from his numb nerveless fingers as Gwen's arm swiftly wrap themselves around him and the class chatter has fallen silent. One of his hands grips her right arm, squeezing it tightly in response. Dimly he's aware of his eyes blurring behind his glasses as his tears stain the newspaper article.

Telling his father about his activities as Spiderman would have to wait for a while, he's not sure how he would react it after a loss this big. He'll continue his superhero activities in secret until the time is right again to tell him.


End file.
